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MAS Urges Greenhouse Gas Disclosure

February 13th, 2008, 11:26 am

In announcing his PlaNYC 2030 sustainability goals for the city on Earth Day last year, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030, placing New York at the vanguard of the fight to combat climate change. In his statement, the mayor said:

“…you can’t formulate a land use plan… without thinking about global warming.”

But, almost one year later, development projects are still going ahead in New York with little analysis of how they impact climate change.

To help address this problem, MAS is drafting guidelines that would require developers to analyze and disclose their impacts on climate change — including a project’s greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to the effects of climate change — in environmental impact statements (EIS) under the state and city Environmental Quality Review Acts (SEQRA and CEQR).